Suggestion Saturday: April 20, 2013

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Quick blog business before I share this week’s list of recommendations:

I’ve noticed an uptick in comments on very old posts. Joining in is always appreciated but if you have off-topic questions or comments or want a response please use the contact form instead. I suspect some replies are getting sucked into the spam folder never to be seen again. 🙂

Informal poll: would you rather read the next instalment of “After the Storm” on Monday or be introduced to a new, nonfiction topic?

Nature Always Wins. As this building is slowly swallowed by the forest I imagine Mother Nature laughing at us. We are not as in control of the natural world as we might think.

Mrs. Pavlov’s Reply. Remember last week when I shared a link to a poem about Pavlov and his dog? PWChaltas was kind enough to write a response to it from the perspective of Mrs. Pavlov.

Hyperrealistic Animals Created by Painting on Layers of Resin. The title explains it all. Hyperrealistic paintings are by far my favourite type of art. I can’t imagine how someone would go about creating something that genuinely looks real but I love looking at it and wondering how such a wonderful piece might have been created.

Here’s the difference between childish and childlike: Childish behavior in anyone who isn’t an actual child is obnoxious. It’s ramming your cart into random objects at Target for no reason; it’s throwing a temper tantrum when you don’t get your way; it’s refusing to apologize when you’ve made a mistake. Being childlike, on the other hand, is immersing yourself in something just because you love doing it. It’s being open to liking things that aren’t “cool,” without pretense or explanation, because they make you happy. It’s the ability to be curious and interested without worrying what anyone else might think.

I Don’t Believe in Soul Mates. Neither do I. If Drew were to die first I’d be absolutely heartbroken but I wouldn’t spend the rest of my life alone. Eventually I’d meet someone special again and marry him or her. I believe there are thousands of people out there who could be “the one.” (And for those of us who are attracted to more than one gender that number is even higher!)

I sometimes think about the enormous role that luck plays in our lives. I think about how easily I could have ended up in a dozen cities other than San Francisco, and I think about the people in those dozen other cities who would be my best friends if I lived there, and thinking about these people gives me a sense of yearning and loss… because I’ll never even get a chance to meet them.

About a decade ago I discovered Not Out of Hate in a secondhand store. Way Way is a teenage girl living in Burma in the 1930s whose life is an allegory for what colonialism did to Myanmar/Burma a hundred years ago.

But Not Out of Hate is also a tragic love story. I believe Way Way’s husband truly did love her even if the decisions he makes about her life have terrible consequences.

Tammy said it best–I want both, but if only one is an option than I’m with Kristen and Jim on the sooner the better on part 3. Ok, so I’ve waffled. Whatever you do is always enjoyable and interesting for me.